Bhubaneswar, Nov 5: The Economic Offenses Wing of the Odisha’s Crime Branch took the Directors of Lingaraj Infrastructure Ltd, Rohit Saraf and Sajjan Kumar Sureka into custody for having their involvement in an alleged land scam, Crime Branch Special DG BK Sharma informed the media. It’s stated that the duo were arrested on Thursday night. The police arrested Saraf from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and Sureka was apprehended from Kolkata. Sureka was produced before the Designated Court in Cuttack which remanded him to judicial custody. After the arrest, Saraf was made to appear in a local court at Nawalgarh, Rajasthan after which he has been brought to Bhubaneswar. They were arrested under Sections 467, 468, 471, 420,120-B of IPC and Section 6 of Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 2011.
It’s stated that originally the 6.17 acre of land belonged to Seven Hills Estates Ltd under Pipil Tahasil of Puri district who sold the land twice in a fraudulent manner. The company sold a part of this land to about 200 persons in a plotting scheme between 2003 and 2006. However, due to official rules and regulations, mutation of the land could not be done in favour of the buyers. Taking advantage of the situation, the same land was purchased by Lingaraj Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. through a power of attorney holder of Seven Hills Estates Ltd in the year 2009. It is alleged that Lingaraj Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. had knowledge of the earlier land deal but in spite of that it went ahead with purchasing the land in question. In September, 2016, a group of victims approached EOW and lodged an FIR naming both companies and their Managing Directors. After investigation, MS Srinivas, Managing Director of Seven Hills Estates Ltd. was arrested on September 9, 2016 and forwarded to the Court. He is now in judicial custody.
Notably, Rohit Saraf is the Joint Managing Director of Ferro Alloys Corporation Ltd (FACOR) and Sureka is one his company official.
